Learn Turkish: Karga ağzında büyük bir parça peynir tutarmış. - The crow would hold a large piece of cheese in its mouth.

Karga ağzında büyük bir parça peynir tutarmış.

The crow would hold a large piece of cheese in its mouth.

Breakdown of Karga ağzında büyük bir parça peynir tutarmış.

Questions & Answers about Karga ağzında büyük bir parça peynir tutarmış.

How does the -armış ending change the meaning of tutmak in this sentence?

The verb tutarmış combines the aorist suffix -ar (used for general facts or habits) with the inferential suffix -mış (used for storytelling or hearsay). Together, they describe a recurring action or state in a story or fable, translating to "would hold" or "used to hold" in a tale you are narrating but didn't personally witness.

Why is the word for mouth spelled ağzında here instead of ağızında?

The root word is ağız (mouth). When a two-syllable body part takes a suffix starting with a vowel, like the possessive -ı (its), the second vowel of the root drops out. This makes it ağzı. Finally, we add the buffer letter -n- and the locative suffix -da (in) to get ağzında (in its mouth).

Why do we say bir parça peynir instead of forming a compound noun like peynir parçası?

When a word like parça (piece), bardak (glass), or kutu (box) is used to measure an amount of something, it acts directly as a quantifier before the noun. You just put them side by side as bir parça peynir (a piece of cheese) without needing to build a possessive compound.

Why is the word bir placed after the adjective büyük?